Biodegradable polymers have significant potential in various fields of medicine, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and in vivo sensing. Many biomedical devices are implanted in a mechanically dynamic environment in the body, which requires the implants to sustain and recover from various deformations without mechanical irritation of the surrounding tissue. In many cases, the matrices and scaffolds of these implants would ideally be made of biodegradable polymers that mimic the functions of extracellular matrix (ECM), a soft, tough and elastomeric proteinaceous network that provides mechanical stability and structural integrity to tissues and organs. Hence an elastomeric biodegradable polymer that readily recovers from relatively large deformations is advantageous for maintaining the implant's proper function (Peppas, N. A., et al., New Challenges In Biomaterials. Science 263: 1715-20, 1994; Langer, R., Biomaterials: Status, Challenges and Perspectives. AIChE J. 46: 1286-1289, 2000). However, most currently available biodegradable polymers are not elastomeric, and >95% of the revenue from these polymers is generated by bioabsorbable sutures. For example, PLGA has a modulus of 2 GPa and a maximum elongation of about 2-10%. In contrast, the modulus of collagen is 1.2 GPa, and the modulus of elastin is 410 kPa. Common biodegradable polymers often require surface modification for wettability and cell attachment (Gao, J., Niklason, et al., Surface Hydrolysis of Poly(glycolic acid) Meshes Increases the Seeding Density of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells. J. Biomed. Mater. Res. 42: 417-424, 1998) and are subject to fibrous encapsulation (Anderson, J. M., et al., Biodegradation and Biocompatibility of PLA and PLGA Microspheres. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 28: 5-24, 1997; Anderson, J. M., In vivo Biocompatibility of Implantable Delivery Systems and Biomaterials. Eur. J Pharm. Biopharm. 40: 1-8 1994).